Tipos de actividades con especial incidencia sobre los sistemas

William’s most complex connections between the Trinity, Christ, and the

Eucharist appear when he characterizes each of these as a kiss or embrace, borrowing the image from the opening verse of the Song of Songs, “Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.” William calls these the kiss of nature, the kiss of doctrine, and the kiss of

grace.152 In his Brevis commentatio, he writes that there is a conversio from the Father to the Son, and from the Son to the Father. This takes place in a kiss of mutual knowledge and an embrace of mutual love. The Holy Spirit is this kiss and embrace, the love of the Father to the Son and the Son to the Father.153 And the Holy Spirit reveals the truth of God’s trinity and unity to us. Hence we are said to be touched by the kiss of the mouth when God reveals himself to us by the Spirit.154 This characterization of the Holy Spirit as a kiss between the Father and the Son appears in William’s other works as well. In his

Disputatio adversus Petrum Abelardum, he writes that the Spirit is common to the Father

and the Son, and is their community (communitas). He also characterizes the Spirit as

151 _{“Locus ergo tuus Pater est, et tu Patris, et non solum, sed etiam nos locus tuus sumus, et tu noster. Cum}

ergo, o Domine Iesu, tu es in Patre, et Pater in te, o summa et indiuisa Trinitas, tu tibi locus es, utique tu tibi locus es, tu tibi caelum es, sicut non habens ex quo, sic non indigens in quo subsistas, nisi ex teipso in teipso. Cum autem nos inhabitas, caelum tuum sumus utique, sed non quo sustenteris, ut inhabites, sed quod sustentes ut in|habitetur, tu quoque caelum nobis exsistens ad quem ascendamus et inhabitemus” (Med, VI.X.81–XI.89; 128).

152 _{Brevis Commentatio, CCCM 87, VII.28–30.}

153 _{“Et est quaedam conuersio a Patre ad Filium, et a Filio ad Patrem. Sed prima est Patris ad Filium, quia}

Filius a Patre est, non Pater a Filio. Prima autem non tempore, sed quasi quadam relatione, sicut Pater ad Filium. Conuersio autem ista est in osculo et amplexu. Osculum est mutua de se cognitio; amplexus est mutua dilectio. Vnde dicit Filius in euangelio: Nemo nouit Patrem nisi Filius, et nemo nouit Filium nisi Pater. Osculum igitur Patris et Filii, et amplexus, est Spiritus sanctus ab utroque procedens, amor Patris ad Filium, et amor Filii ad Patrem” (Brev com, VI.17–26).

154 _{“Cui igitur Filius per Spiritum reuelat, non dicendus est osculari ore suo Deus, sed osculo oris sui. Non}

enim os tangimus, sed osculo tangimur. Osculo tangimur, cum amor et cognitio nobis infunditur” (Brev

“charity, embrace and kiss, goodness, sweetness and joy . . . and their divinity.”155 And in the Ep frat, he calls the Spirit “the God who is Charity. He who is the love of Father and Son, their Unity, Sweetness, Good, Kiss, Embrace and whatever else they can have in common in that supreme unity of truth and truth of unity.”156

The Incarnation is a second kiss in which humanity and divinity are joined in union (coniunctio).157 This kiss intensifies in the Passion, which William describes as a kiss and an embrace and Rougé characterizes as “the kiss of the cross.”158 The third kiss is the union of the Holy Spirit and the soul in particular gifts of grace. William describes these latter two in greater detail in his Cant:

A kiss is a certain outward loving union of bodies, sign and incentive of an inward union. It is produced by use of the mouth and aims, by mutual exchange, at a union not only of bodies but of spirits. Christ the Bridegroom offered to his Bride the Church, so to speak, a kiss from heaven, when the Word made flesh drew so near to her that he wedded her to himself; and so wedded her that he united her to himself, in order that God might become man, and man might become God. He also offers this same kiss to the faithful soul, his Bride, and imprints it upon her, when from the remembrance of the benefits common to all men, he gives her her own special and personal joy and pours forth within her the grace of his love, drawing her spirit to himself and infusing into her his spirit, that both may be one spirit.159

155 _{“Cum ergo Pater etiam sit spiritus et sanctus, Filius quoque spiritus et sanctus, oportuit censeri aliquo}

nomine quod commune esset amborum, ipsum qui communis et communitas est amborum; et commune amborum quidquid commune est eorum: caritas, amplexus et osculum, bonitas, suauitas et gaudium, et ut totum concludam, diuinitas amborum” (Disputatio adversus Petrum Abelardum, CCCM 89A, IV.85–90; the translation is my own).

156 _{“Deus caritas; cum qui est amor Patris et Filii, et unitas et suauitas, et bonum et osculum, et amplexus et}

quicquid commune potest esse amborum” (Ep frat, II.263.508–510; 96).

157 _{“Coniunctio enim Verbi et audientis, diuinitatis et humanitatis, quasi quoddam osculum est caritatis. . . .}

Haec igitur coniunctio diuinae et humanae naturae quoddam est osculum sponsi et sponsae” (Brev com, VII.5–6, 26–27).

158 _{Med, V.8, V.17, VIII.5; Rougé, Doctrine et experience, 310.}

159 _{“Osculum amica quaedam et exterior coniunctio corporum est, interioris coniunctionis signum et}

incentiuum.

Quod oris ministerio exhibetur, ut non tantum corporum, sed ex mutuo contactu etiam spirituum coniunctio fiat. Sponsus uero Christus sponsae suae ecclesiae quasi osculum de caelo porrexit, cum Verbum caro factum in tantum ei appropinquauit, ut se ei coniungeret; in tantum coniunxit, ut uniret, ut Deus homo, homo Deus fieret. Ipsum etiam osculum fideli animae sponsae suae porrigit et imprimit, cum de memoria communium bonorum, priuatum ei et proprium commendans gaudium, gratiam ei sui amoris infundit, spiritum eius sibi adtrahens et suum infundens ei, ut inuicem unus spiritus sint” (Cant, IV.27.83–93; 25–

Here it becomes clear that, for William, a kiss is a movement of love and knowledge by a person of the Trinity toward another person, human or divine. In the kiss of nature, this movement takes place within the existing unity of the Trinity and hence is a conversio, a turning toward. In the kisses of doctrine and grace, however, these movements goes out toward human beings to form a coniunctio, a union that did not previously exist. In the same pattern of logic we have seen before, the Son unites himself to human nature and bestows the Spirit on particular persons so that they may have his love in them. The Spirit unites them to Christ, which incorporates them into his self-offering to the Father and into the life of the Trinity. In Rougé’s words, “The kiss of the humanity and the passion of Jesus bear witness and lead to the still more surprising and wonderful kiss of the Trinity itself.”160 Coniunctio leads to a share in conversio.

It is no coincidence that in this passage William describes the kisses of doctrine and grace in sacramental, even Eucharistic language. First, like the sacraments, a kiss is an outward sign of a corresponding inner spiritual reality in which the outward sign not only signifies but effects that reality. Indeed, the Eucharist is obviously one of the kisses of grace that Christ gives through the Holy Spirit. Second, the purpose of the union of the kiss of the Incarnation is for God to become man so that man might become God. Here William again uses fio, the verb he regularly employs for the Word taking on flesh and becoming present on the altar during the Eucharist. This reflects logic common to both the mission of the Son in the Incarnation and the mission of the Spirit in gifts of grace, such as the Eucharist. Finally, Christ imprints the kiss on the soul when he infuses it with

26). For more on how this union takes place in thoughts and feelings, knowledge and love, see Cant, XXVII.

160 _{“Le baiser de l’humanité et de la passion de Jésus rend témoinage et mène au baiser, plus surprenant et}

the grace of his love and draws its spirit to himself. In so doing, he gives the soul its own joys from the memory of the good things common to all, a clear reference to the way in which meditation on the passion and spiritual reception of the Eucharist increase love in a particular person based on remembering what Christ has done for all. This is made

explicit in the passage of Meditatio VIII mentioned above, in which William describes spiritual reception of the Eucharist and the union of grace it produces as the kiss of the lover on the mouth of the beloved.

The role of the Eucharist becomes even more explicit when William elaborates about the work of God. He writes:

Your work is made true for us when we sacrifice to you this your sacrifice. When we remember with the sure sacrament of faith and a pious affection of heart what you have done for us, faith, as it were, receives it with its mouth, hope chews it, and charity cooks into salvation and life the blessed and beatifying food of your grace. There you show yourself to the soul which desires you, accepting the embrace of her love and kissing her with the kiss of your mouth. As happens in a loving kiss, she pours out to you her spirit [lit. anima, soul], and you pour in your spirit [spiritum], so that you are made one body and one spirit when she receives in this way your body and blood.161

As Rougé notes, this is not metaphorical language about a general way in which the soul is justified. Rather, it is explicitly Eucharistic language tying together some of William’s favorite themes.162 _{Eucharistic offering and meditation make Christ present to the soul,}

161 _{“Verum quippe nobis fit opus tuum, cum sacrificamus tibi hoc sacrificium tuum; cum certo fidei}

sacramento et pio cordis affectu recolentibus nobis quid pro nobis fecisti, fides quasi ore suscipit; spes ruminat, caritas excoquit in salutem et uitam beatum et beatificum gratiae tuae cibum. Ibi enim te exhibes animae desideranti, acceptans amplexum amoris sui, et osculans eam osculo oris tui, ubi sicut in osculo amoris solet, ipsa tibi effundit spiritum suum, et tu ei infundis tuum, ut efficiamini unum corpus et unus spiritus, cum hoc modo sumit corpus et sanguinem tuum” (Exp Rom, Liber IV.714–723; Romans 8:3–4; 153).

162 _{“Il semble pourtant qu’en insistant sur la nécessaire conjonction du ‘véritable sacrement de la foi’ et}

d’une ‘pieuse affection du coeur’ ainsi qu’en parlant explicitement du corps et du sang du Seigneur, notre auteur se situe délibéré dans le registre sacramental. . . . De manière peu inopinée, Guillaume fournit donc aux lecteurs de son commentaire une brève synthèse de ses themes eucharistiques favoris: participation au mystère de la Rédemption, memorial intérieur, nourriure spirituelle, échange intime avec le Christ” (Rougé,

which then receives him through faith, hope, and charity. That act of reception is metaphorically depicted in the opening passage of the Song of Songs, as William wrote earlier in his Meditationes. It is an exchange in which the believer offers his soul to Christ and receives the Spirit of Christ in return. In this way, the soul’s reception of Christ’s body and blood unites the believer to Christ in body and spirit. Given what William has written previously in Sac alt about physical reception deifying the body, he seems to imply spiritual and physical reception here. Offering and receiving the

Eucharist, then, is an important part of justification and union with God. Hence Rougé comments, “If man and his Lord can form ‘one single body and one single spirit,’ it is because one food at once corporal and spiritual is received in communion.”163

William repeatedly emphasizes the way in which the kiss of the Spirit by grace brings human beings into the kiss of nature that takes place between the persons of the Trinity. In the Ep frat, his characterization of the Holy Spirit as the kiss of the Father and the Son is situated in the middle of a passage describing how the Spirit “becomes for man in regard to God in the manner appropriate to him what he is for the Son in regard to the Father or for the Father in regard to the Son through unity of substance. The soul in its happiness finds itself standing midway in the Embrace and the Kiss of the Father and Son. In a manner which exceeds description and thought, the man of God is found worthy to become not God but what God is, that is to say man becomes through grace what God is by nature.”164

163 _{“Si l’homme et son Seigneur peuvent former ‘un seul corps et un seul esprit,’ c’est bien parce qu’une}

nourriture à la fois corporelle et spirituelle est reçue en communion” (Ibid., 83).

164 _{“in summa illa unitate ueritatis et in ueritate unitatis, hoc idem fit homini suo modo ad Deum, quod}

consubstantiali unitate Filio est ad Patrem uel Patri ad Filium. Cum in osculo et amplexu Patris et Filii mediam quodammodo se inuenit beata conscientia; cum modo ineffabili et incogitabili, fieri meretur homo Dei, non Deus, sed tamen quod Deus est: homo ex gratia quod Deus est ex natura” (Ep frat, II.263.510– 516; 96).

This incorporation into the life of the Trinity through union with the Spirit takes place in part in this life through the sacraments, but comes to fulfillment only in heaven. In his Cant, William writes that this embrace of the Holy Spirit who is the embrace of the Father and Son is begun here, but perfected elsewhere. The sweetness experienced here foretells a future sweetness. The essence of that future good and this present good are the same, but the aspect is different. This present union belongs to wayfaring in mortal life, the other to the journey’s end in eternal life. Then, when mutual knowledge shall be perfect, it will be the full kiss and the full embrace.165 Only the wall of mortal life holds back the Bridegroom, Christ, from his bride, the Church, in the full kiss of union in the Spirit.166 While that wall remains, the sacraments serve to mediate the reception of the Spirit so that that union can come about. But in heaven, “the Reality [res] which is veiled by all the sacraments will utterly put an end to all sacraments. In the sacraments of the New Testament, it is true, the day of new grace began to break; but in that end of perfect consummation will come the full noonday when glass and riddle and that which is in part shall be done away, but there shall be the vision face to face and the plenitude of the highest good.”167 The res of union with the Spirit that they, especially the Eucharist, make available is only a foretaste of the fulfillment of that union to come.

In the Spec fid, William also connects memory to the Holy Spirit’s meditation of union with God. We recognize God as we recognize a friend. We have affectus derived from faith in our memory, which makes God present to us when he is absent. But the Father and Son recognize each other in their unity, which is the Spirit and the substance

165 _{Cant, XXVII.128.} 166 _{Cant, XXXIII.151.}

167 _{“In sacramentis quippe Noui Testamenti cepit aspirare nouae gratiae dies; in illo uero omnis}

consummationis fine erit meridies, ubi non erit speculum et aenigma et ex parte, sed uisio faciei ad faciem, et summi boni plenitudo” (Cant, XXXVII.172.19–23; 142).

by which they are what they are. The Father and Son receal this recognition by imparting the Spirit, who is their common knowledge and will. This enables the one who has received the Spirit to recognize them as the Father and Son recognize themselves,

because he has within himself their mutual knowing and love. In this kiss of the Spirit the person receives a partial recognition of God, which will become perfect in the beatific vision.168 The preparation of memory by right faith and Eucharistic reception imprints the recognition of God on his memory, conforming it to God and preparing his mind to receive the fullness of the image of God.